Having learned nothing from the fallout of its actions in
2011, the Atlantic Empire and the EUSSR continued to sink ever deeper into
the quagmire throughout 2012. Nothing seems to penetrate their bunker
mentality, and worse yet, every crisis only seems to be an excuse to grab
even more power, and do even more harm. That’s been standard
government practice for decades, to be sure, yet in the internet age of
near-instant ability to verify or debunk propaganda, the establishment still
thinks it possible to fool all of the people, all of the time.

The Long March to Damascus

Once more, the focus of Empire’s efforts has been the Middle East. The uncivil
war of jihadist militias and Western-backed "rebels" against the Syrian
government has been escalating steadily throughout the year, but without crossing
into overt intervention Libya-style. Even the fact that Libya has not
worked out at all doesn’t seem to throw off the plans of Washington, London,
Ankara and Paris regarding Damascus.

Quite possibly not wanting to risk an unpredictable war during the election
year, Washington has held off on escalating the Syrian jihad just yet.
But the Empire has been laying down the groundwork. In May, the "Atrocity
Prevention Board" was set up to justify the tyranny
of good intentions. Propaganda outlets have been recycling
every excuse used in the past two decades, from Bosnia and Kosovo to Iraq and
Libya. It is only a matter of time before open war begins; very likely sometime
in March.

Pussy Riot Politics

The so-called color revolutions have been established
as a much cheaper and, if successful, far more effective way of "regime
change" than overt invasion. They also fail less often – but they
do fail. One example this year has been the "White Revolution,"
where NED-backed "activists" tried to oust Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
When the revolutionaries failed, the Empire deployed
provocateurs: a "punk rock" group of public nuisances with a vulgar
name. Their jailing over the "performance" desecrating an Orthodox
cathedral provided an opportunity for the Western press to pillory Moscow. The
Kremlin retaliated by adopting a law on foreign agents copied from the U.S.,
hoisting the NED by its own petard.

While the Empire’s actions showed it was guided by a rather Leninist
“logic” of "who-whom," the campaign for Emperor confirmed that
imperialism was a bipartisan value. In the end, the predictions of a tight race
ended up being entirely a product of media hype. The political circus was as
authentic as televised wrestling – but even if the American masses somehow managed
to realize this, their coastal "elite" would still continue ignoring
them and living in a bubble of self-deception.

Even the blowback in Libya and the rise of a new
Pharaoh in Egypt did nothing to change the thinking in Washington. They
could always point to the Balkans as a place where Imperial "order"
persisted.

Hunger Games

For all the posturing to the contrary, though, even the Empire’s "allies"
in the region weren’t prospering in 2012. EU’s annexation of Croatia was approved
in January, and expected to take place in early 2013. Yet Croatians are mostly
eager to return
to the fold because they believe the EU may save them from economic ruin.
That, however, is one thing the EU cannot do. Just ask the
Slovenians.

In Bosnia, more and more people are going
hungry. But while the Imperial officialdom continues to blame the Serbs,
the real culprit is the political free-for-all in the Muslim-Croat half of the
country, exacerbated
by the Syrian crisis. This is rich with irony, because the march to war on Syria
bears an uncanny
resemblance to the process of dragging the American public into Bosnia.

Life isn’t any better in "Kosovo," a Serbian province occupied by
ethnic Albanians and recognized by the Empire as an independent state. Sure,
Hillary Clinton called it her family’s "personal”
matter, and many former U.S. officials are rushing to "invest"
in its dubious economy, but the very real social problems are being channeled
into expansionist
chauvinism.

New Cast, Same Show

Things have not gone smoothly in Serbia, either. By March, the quisling government
of Democrats and Socialists had exhausted its ability to bend
reality at Empire’s insistence, so a new general election was called. Precautions
were taken against any chance that the electorate could turn
away from the Empire, though. After an outpouring of protests over the attempt
by the Democrats to rig
the vote, the Progressive candidate won the presidency. The Socialists then
defected from the ruling coalition and set up a new cabinet with the Progressives.
Within weeks, however, the "new" government turned out to be even
worse than the old.

For a while, their behavior seemed
baffling, deflecting Imperial demands through apparent incompetence. They
were even handed a magnificent
opportunity when Berlin framed the issue of Serbia’s EU accession in such
a way that no sane person could accept it. But there was no method in the madness.
Soon after a Halloween
visitation from Brussels and Washington, the New Quislings began acting
like remote-controlled drones, setting up the region for a winter
of discontent. Meanwhile, the project of rewriting Balkans history to make
the Empire a knight in shining armor continues to require increasingly
absurd contortions.

Reaping the Whirlwind

While it may appear that the Empire is successful in imposing its will on the
Balkans, its impatience suggests a certain sense of desperation, as if attempting
to stave
off entropy.

Someone once said the Balkans produced more history than could be consumed
locally. External powers have constantly tried to assert themselves in the region,
from the 1878
Congress of Berlin to the Dayton Accords – with only limited success. Those
who refuse to learn from history
are doomed to repeat it. A century after the Great
War, the ghosts of Yugoslavia continue to haunt
the EU and the Empire.

2012 has been the year of sowing the wind. What whirlwinds shall be reaped
in 2013, those that survive will tell.